Musikkindergarten

Opening hours

• Monday – Friday
• 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Viewing appointments

Thursday, 12.01.2023
Thursday, 16.02.2023
Thursday, 09.03.2023
Thursday, 30.03.2023
Thursday, 27.04.2023
Thursday, 11.05.2023
Wednesday, 24.05.2023

Job vacancies

We are always looking for new talents and support for our teams. You are welcome to send us an unsolicited application.

Registration

We have vacant nursery and kindergarten places with immediate effect. To register, please fill out the PDF form and send it to us either by e-mail or post.

»With music you can overcome borders. If we provide this experience to our children, they will be carried by it for a lifetime.«

Kent Nagano, patron of the music kindergarten, Hamburg general music director and chief conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

Childcare provision

The children are cared for in two nursery groups and four kindergarten groups. We work according to the partially open concept and offer early intervention places.

We offer around 140 places for children between the ages of 1 and 6 as well as early intervention places for children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are accepted as defined by integration assistance; so far five places have been reserved for this.

All children who are new to the facility are helped in the process of settling in following evaluated acclimatisation models for day-care centres.

We are not a private kindergarten. The costs are partially covered by the Hamburg Authority for Labour, Social Affairs, Family and Integration (BASFI) and partially by the parents. The amount of the parents’ share is earnings-related (day-care voucher principle).

Our pedagogical work is based on the Hamburg educational recommendations and framework agreements of the City of Hamburg with regard to quality. It encompasses all areas from physical activity and communication to perception of the social and cultural environment through to first experiences in the natural sciences, arts and crafts, and of course music.

The children spend the day both in their core group as well as in open groups with the other children of the facility. The children are thereby able to find their bearings, test things and develop according to their own pace and individual possibilities. The key carer provides the help and encouragement to try out new things; through observations, appropriate documentation and exchanges with parents, each child is able to be assisted individually.

Every two weeks, instrumentalists or singers from the Hamburg State Opera come to visit, allowing the children to experience music from different epochs live: the children listen to the sounds of the various orchestral instruments – and relish the opportunity of trying out the instruments themselves. Together with the singers of the State Opera Choir, they work out small opera scenes that match the arias performed. In addition, the intensive experiences with the artists are carried over into everyday life – children and educators make music together on instruments that belong to the day-care centre or are hand-made, they sing, experiment with sounds and stage small performances. Instruments are available to the children at all times so that they are able to make music on their own initiative.

Educational offer

In the music kindergarten we provide the children access to a wide range of music. Music is integrated into the everyday life of the children – they playfully discover their own musical world when singing, dancing and making music with an inquisitive and creative spirit. Once a week, instrumentalists from the Philharmonic Orchestra or vocalists from the State Opera Choir visit the music kindergarten to share their passion for music with the children.

In the winter semester students from the Academy of Music and Theatre (Hochschule für Musik und Theater – HfMT) visit us and work on various musical projects with the children. Our work is based on the Hamburg educational recommendations and encompasses all areas of education. Other pedagogical activities include:

• Participation in the Bridge Year
• The children’s development is monitored and documented with the help of educational and learning stories.
• Psychomotor skills (cooperation with the Eimsbütteler Turnverein sports club)
• Regular trips and projects
• Forest days

History

The Hamburg music kindergarten was founded in 2010 as the 24th of Stiftung Kindergärten Finkenau’s facilities. Classical radio presenter Maria Willer launched the kindergarten along the lines of the Berlin music kindergarten founded by Daniel Barenboim and with Stiftung Kindergärten Finkenau promoted partnerships with Simone Young, the State Opera and the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg.

Day-care centre team

Our team consists of qualified childcare workers. Some educators have additional specialist knowledge, e.g. in music education, social pedagogy, remedial education, intercultural education or in psychomotor skills. All team members bring in their musicality and musical experience to the work with the children.

Housekeeping and cleaning staff are also an integral part of the team. We are particularly committed to providing interns with qualified training. We also receive support from volunteers or federal volunteers.

Case discussions are held and pedagogical topics as well as conceptual and organisational matters discussed at the staff meetings that take place regularly. Our employees’ documentation and observation of the children’s development is an essential part of the work.

Regular training enables staff to call into question and review their own work and allows access to the latest findings in the fields of pedagogy and developmental psychology. All employees are obliged to attend training courses at least once a year.

Anne Murawski is available to talk to as director of pedagogy and for recordings. Kai Schnabel as director is responsible for everything related to matters of music.

Spatial layout

• The facility is located in the heart of the renovated Schanzen-Höfe
• Different learning rooms on two floors
• The centrepiece is a spacious, light-flooded entrance hall with loft space
• Special feature is the music room, which among other things connects the entrance hall with the kindergarten section and has windows that allow children to look through
• Spacious hallway
• Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the building
• Each nursery group has its own group sleeping area and washroom
• The kindergarten section is architecturally designed to be a very open space
• Various learning areas that allow leeway for mobility and space to play
• Outdoor grounds

Cooperation with parents

• Annual parental survey
• Parents’ council
• Parents’ (crafting) evenings
• Conversations at drop-off and pick-up time
• Complaint management
• Annual development meetings
• Support offered by internal advisory team
• Music to round up the month

We need and want to work with the parents. This is why we encourage conversations with the parents, evenings with parents as well as dialogues with the carers from time to time. We enjoy sharing celebrations with parents and children in order to strengthen this cooperative work even more.

Appointments 2022

• Mon. 17.01.2022 – Bridge Year information afternoon
• Sat. 22.01.2022 – New Year’s concert
• Wed. 09.02.2022 – Parents’ council
• Wed. 16.02.2022 – Parents’ evening Flötenfohlen
• Wed. 23.02.2022 – Parents’ evening Trommelkrokodile
• Tue. 01.03.2022 – Fasching
• Wed. 02.03.2022 – Parents’ evening Klavierschildkröten
• Wed. 23.03.2022 – Parents’ evening Klangkobolde
• Thur. 24.03.2022 – Parents’ evening Melodiezauberer
• Wed. 30.03.2022 – Parents’ evening Musikwichtel
• Wed. 18.05.2022 – Parents’ council
• Fri. 24.06.2022 – Summer party
• Fri. 01.07.2022 – Farewell to the Bridge Year
• Wed. 24.08.2022 – Parents’ evening Flötenfohlen
• Wed. 31.08.2022 – Parents’ evening Trommelkrokodile (TK)
• Wed. 07.09.2022 – Parents’ evening Klavierschildkröten (KS)
• Wed. 14.09.2022 – Parents’ evening Melodiezauberer (MZ)
• Wed. 21.09.2022 – Parents’ evening Musikwichtel & Klangkobolde (MW & KK)
• Wed. 05.10.2022 – Parents’ council
• Thur. 10.11.2022 – Crafting lanterns
• Fri. 18.11.2022 – Festival of lights
• December 2022 – Little opera doors at Advent
• Wed. 07.12.2022 – Parents’ council
• Thur. 08.12.2022 – Christmas carols TK+KS
• Tue. 13.12.2022 – Christmas carols MW+KK
• Wed. 14.12.2022 – Christmas carols FF+MZ

We always strive to keep news up-to-date, but binding statements and announcements as well as information on closing times are only available from the facility itself.

Education through music

Music pervades the children’s daily activities and is a part of their routines. Unlike in other day-care centres, it is not an element that shows up just sporadically. Singing takes place in the groups three times a week. On every first and third Wednesday of the month, all the children and the entire day-care team sing together; parents are invited to join this open singing group, too. In addition, the music is made tangible – live and up close – through the regular contact with professional musicians. When musicians from the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg and singers from the Hamburg State Opera Choir come to visit, which occurs every two weeks, the children get a taste of the world of music at large. The musicians are greeted by approx. 20 children at morning circle; only afterwards do the musicians present their instruments to all the day-care children in the large entrance hall. In this intimate setting an in-depth exchange can take place – the instrument can be investigated in detail, with shyer children, too, getting the opportunity to do so. The groups take turns, they deal with the instrument of their choice even before the visit and digest the experience later. The respective instructor actively accompanies the process. In everyday life, the children discover their own musical world with our carefully selected team: through singing, dancing and making music with an inquisitive and creative spirit.

The playful discovery of music is our priority. The children do not receive any singing or instrument lessons in the conventional sense. We want to use music as a messenger for education and emotional development of children on many levels: listening and performing promotes language development; rhythm and movement trains motor coordination and perception of space/time processes; experiences with sound and acoustics guide towards the natural sciences; making music together promotes awareness in contact with others and increases social competence – it also includes first experiences with numbers and structures.

Conceptually, the Hamburg music kindergarten takes inspiration from an initiative by the conductor Daniel Barenboim. The Berlin music kindergarten has been working in cooperation with the Berlin State Orchestra and the State Opera Unter den Linden since 2005.

State Opera Hamburg

With a tradition spanning over 300 years, the Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera houses in Europe. Since 2010, Hamburg’s general music director – since 2015 Kent Nagano, previously Simone Young – have taken on the patronage of the Hamburg music kindergarten with great verve. Members of the State Opera ensemble and choir share their joy in music with the children by regularly visiting the Hamburg music kindergarten. Under the banner “young”, the Hamburg State Opera, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier present their specialised offer to children and young people.

Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg

The Philharmonic State Orchestra has been defining the sound of the Hanseatic city for almost 200 years. The musicians are passionately committed to young people and the promotion of young musical talent. An important component was added to its intensive education work in 2010 by launching the cooperation with the Hamburg music kindergarten. Since the beginning of the 2016/17 season, the collaboration with the Hamburg State Opera and the Philharmonic State Orchestra has further intensified and solidified. The visits of the orchestra and choir members are planned for a year in advance and now take place regularly every two weeks. And there are return visits, too: children from the music kindergarten are allowed to take part in rehearsals at the opera in groups.

Academy for Music and Theatre in Hamburg (Hochschule für Musik und Theater – HfMT)

Since 2012 the Academy of Music and Theatre (HfMT) has also been one of the Hamburg music kindergarten’s cooperation partners. The cooperation project so far consists of a course on perception/communication/learning and teaching in the winter semester. In their seminar, students of instruments develop project units in which they actively play music with the children and make classical works accessible to them. The students work on music with the children at the music kindergarten from a wide variety of epochs, styles and instrumentations and accompany the children imaginatively in their musical experience of instruments, melodies, rhythms and sounds.

National Youth Ballet

The National Youth Ballet is a company consisting of eight young dancers under the artistic directorship of John Neumeier. As a company without its own stage, the dancers are always looking for new venues to perform at hospitals, retirement homes and prisons, but also at theatres and festivals. The dedicated members of the National Youth Ballet visit the music kindergarten twice a year and inspire the children with their choreographies – participation is explicitly encouraged and the children greatly enjoy the movements.

Hamburg Conservatory and Zukunftsmusik Hamburg e.V. (translated as Future Music Hamburg registered association)

As part of the “Kultur macht stark” (“Culture makes people strong”) programme launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, we established a cooperation in 2019 with the Hamburg Conservatory and the association Verein Zukunftsmusik Hamburg e.V. Two music instructors come to visit us every two weeks, who take approx. 15 children from the kindergarten section (3–6 years) along on imaginary journeys as they sing. During the 45-minute visits, the children are guided in a playful and professional manner to explore their own voices in melodies and sounds and be completely themselves and relaxed while doing so. The music kindergarten thanks them for their dedication!

Bartholomay Stiftung

Lulu und Robert Bartholomay Stiftung supports our work with repeated financial donations, which we have in the past used to purchase chairs for concerts and a beautiful harp. At the end of 2012, Father Christmas brought us yet another gift that we used to buy a wonderful sound cradle. We were generously gifted for our work in 2016 as well and were able to build our own playhouse.

Bullerei restaurant

The Bullerei hotspot run by Tim Mälzer and Patrick Rüther supported our two concerts with great feasting and plenty of neighbourly goodwill. We staged a children’s programme at the Bullerei’s fifth anniversary in July 2014 to let our wonderful neighbours know how much we appreciate them.

Café Elbgold

The Elbgold café is in our immediate vicinity in the Schanze and provides delicious coffee to the musicians who come to visit us every week. It also takes care of the catering for selected events on our premises.

Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung (German Orchestra Foundation)

Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung helps us to buy instruments for the music kindergarten with its donation.

Hamburg’s wholesale meat market

The meat wholesale market enabled the purchase of designer concert chairs for the charity opening concert with a generous donation.

Gärtner Möbel furniture store

Gärtner Möbel enabled us to buy Eames chairs for our concerts by giving us heavily subsidised purchase prices.

Hamburger Sparkasse bank

The Hamburger Sparkasse supported the Hamburg music kindergarten with a substantial injection of capital. The money was used to build a soundproof music room.

Haspa Musik Stiftung (Haspa Music Foundation)

Haspa Musik Stiftung is helping the Hamburg music kindergarten with a very special donation: in future we will be able to use an elegant, high-quality Yamaha piano free of charge.

Iris von Hänisch

Ms von Hänisch is a board member of “Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hamburg e.V.” Iris von Hänisch, who worked as a music instructor for many years, has made her extensive and valuable collection of instruments available to the Hamburg music kindergarten. The generous contributor consistently surprises us with other gifts and financial donations, for which we are highly appreciative.

Jovita Stiftung Hamburg

We are indebted to the Hamburg children’s and youth foundation Jovita Stiftung for its funding of a sound wall by Ferdinand Försch. The musician presented us with the drum wall in the presence of managing director Elke Fischer at the end of March 2016. We are over the moon – and the children now drum like champions.

Peter-Mählmann-Stiftung

Peter-Mählmann-Stiftung, which belongs to the Haspa bank, donated a generous sum to the music kindergarten for an educational book project in which musical immersion and experiences related to it are portrayed in a way suitable for practical application.

Ratsherrn Brauerei (brewery)

Our neighbour, the brewery Ratsherrn Brauerei, ensured that the guests we invited were supplied with sparkling soft drinks during the two concerts.

Donation and sponsorship queries

Johanna Kühne is happy to assist you if you would like to learn about possibilities of supporting our project and even incorporating it in your public relations work in a meaningful and useful way.

Contact for sponsors and press

presse@finkenau.de